The Political Behaviour Colloquium, EUI 2025
March 18, 2025
AfD press spokesperson 2013-2020
We discussed this with Gauland [AfD Party Leader] at length: The worse things are going for Germany, the better for the AfD (…). If everything was going well right now (…), the AfD would be at three percent. We don’t want that. That’s why we need to come up with a strategy.
Motivation
Research question
Do RRPs actively create government failure
by obstructing public goods provision?
Case: RRPs in local govt’
Empirical strategy
Findings
RRP success
RRP success
Mainstream parties
Populist parties
Incentives
Objectives
Expectations
German counties
Radical right representation
Government performance
Democratic processes
elite interviews
protocols (Niederschriften)
Radical right representation
Government performance
Democratic processes
elite interviews 🚧
protocols (Niederschriften) 🚧
Data
Design
Semi-structured interviews
Head of finance committee, Hesse
They [the AfD] probably introduce the highest numbers of proposals. And that is for a small to medium caucus, mind you. […] Their proposals are annoying. Because they insist on debating them, every single time. And this costs time and nerves, of course.
Hard facts
Hard facts
Hard facts
Hard facts
Hard facts
Soft facts
Hard facts
Soft facts
Processing
Other mechanisms
Compound treatments
Results
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